Congress leader and former Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy has accused the AINRC-led NDA government of aiding the agenda of the BJP government at the Centre to gradually impose Hindi in the Union Territory as seen in the recently issued circulars of Jipmer.
Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of a Congress-led agitation on the issue in front of Jipmer, Mr. Narayanasamy said it was not a coincidence that the circulars came out within days of the recent Puducherry visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Home Minister had earlier advocated Hindi as the link language for the country in the place of English.
According to Mr. Narayanasamy, contrary to what the officials were saying, the circulars issued by Jipmer on the languages of choice to be used across hospital functions were only English and Hindi and nowhere was Tamil ever mentioned.
Mr. Narayanasamy accused Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan of trying to mislead the people by claiming that Tamil enjoyed primacy among Hindi and English at Jipmer.
Holding up copies of the circulars, Mr. Narayanasamy said: “These clearly indicate that English and Hindi would be the languages in use across Jipmer functions. This was only the first step of the BJP government at the Centre in removing English at a later stage and imposing Hindi,” he said.
The Lieutenant Governor should tender an open apology to the people for wrongly claiming that there was no ‘imposition’ of Hindi, he said.
“If (Chief Minister) Rangasamy has not uttered a word on the language row even when various political parties had opposed the move, it can only mean that he is abetting the BJP’s agenda out of fear that he will lose his post if he speaks out against Hindi,” Mr. Narayanasamy said.
When the previous Congress Ministry was in power, the government had clearly conveyed to the Centre that the official languages in use in the Union Territory were Tamil, French, Malayalam, Telugu and English. “We will oppose any move to bring in Hindi in the Union Territory,” Mr. Narayanasamy said.
The Congress would continue the agitation till Jipmer withdrew the controversial circulars and the primacy of Tamil was restored at the institution, he said.
On the Lt. Governor’s criticism that the Opposition was raking up language politics when a tri-lingual policy was in place at Jipmer, Mr. Narayanasamy retorted: “In Puducherry, it is not the Chief Minister who leads the AINRC but the Lt. Governor who is doing the politicking.”
V. Vaithilingam, MP, said that he would submit a representation to the Centre demanding revocation of the circular. Puducherry PCC president A.V. Subramanian, Leader of the Congress Legislature Party M Vaithiyanathan, former ministers M Kandasamy and MOHF Shajahan, former government whip RKR Anantharaman, former MLAs MNR Bhalan and Karthikeyan and the Mahila Congress leader participated in the protest.
Meanwhile, R Rajangam, said in a press note, that the Lieutenant Governor by usurping the role of Chief Minister on various issues which, he said, was violatingt the principles of democracy.
